$24 bite ahead for many in Fast Lane
Free replacements of transponders to end
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority will no longer provide free replacements for hundreds of thousands of dying Fast Lane electronic toll transponders and instead will charge users a $24.61 fee for each new device, a spokesman said yesterday.
Under a policy adopted without fanfare by the Turnpike Authority board last week, any transponder that fails between now and March 31 will be replaced for free. Also, all transponders will carry a three-year warranty, starting from their date of purchase.
But with an average life of five years, many of the roughly 900,000 transponders in use are past the warranty period and will last longer than the grace period cutoff date, which means that many drivers with older tags will wind up paying the replacement fee.
During the grace period, the authority will not replace transponders that are working or that appear to have been damaged on purpose, spokesman Thomas Farmer said. Once the warranty runs out, owners will have to pay the replacement fee, which is slightly less than $27.50 it costs to initially get one when joining the program.
The vast majority of transponders stop working because their nonreplaceable batteries run out of power, usually after about five years, though some have lasted much longer, officials said.
Farmer said board members believe that the replacement fee is the best way for the authority to keep from losing money on the popular program, which allows transponder users to bypass cash tolls and long lines at tollbooths and instead pay a monthly bill using a credit card or checking account. Fast Lane customers also get a discount on some stretches of the Pike and on the Tobin Bridge and do not pay a monthly fee.
''We don't make any money on Fast Lane, so the feeling was that this was the way to go, rather than charging monthly fees, statement fees, or other charges," Farmer said. ''There are plenty of other states that charge various [monthly or replacement] fees."
Farmer said that the replacement fee is exactly what the Canadian company that makes the transponders charges the authority for each one.
In a press release, Matthew J. Amorello, Turnpike Authority chairman, said the authority believes that the policy is ''fair and less expensive for our customers."
A review of toll-road transponder policies in other East Coast states showed that charging users for replacement transponders appears to bring Massachusetts in line with other states.
In Maine, for example, users of that state's E-ZPass program must pay a $25 fee to replace their transponders, according to the state's website. They must also pay a $2 monthly charge to receive an itemized statement. Fast Lane pass holders can receive a monthly statement for free.
In New York and New Jersey, the E-ZPass programs replace transponders for free, but charge a $1 per month service or membership fee. Over the life of a typical transponder, Farmer said, those fees would add up to about $60, more than twice what Fast Lane users pay.
According to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the Fast Lane program has about 553,000 business and private account holders who make up the nearly 900,000 tag users in the state.
Almost half of those transponders were purchased during the program's first three years, from 1998 to 2001, meaning that they are past the three-year warranty and that a large number have passed their expected battery life. Turnpike Authority officials have replaced more than 160,000 of those transponders and estimate that it would have cost them at least another $4 million to replace the rest without charge.
Not everyone agreed that the new fees are a good idea.
''Four million isn't anything to sneeze at, but I think you want to provide every incentive you can for people to use Fast Lane," said former state senator David P. Magnani, a Democrat from Framingham who said he probably will have to pay to replace his transponder. ''It saves money, and it improves the flow of traffic."
Each time the transponder communicates with a tollbooth, the battery expends a small amount of energy, officials said. The transponder's manufacturer, Mark IV Industries of Mississauga, Ontario, attaches the 1-inch, 3.6 volt lithium battery to the circuitry of the device, making it not easily replaceable. The case of the transponder is also designed not to be opened once it leaves the factory.
Farmer said that while there are no plans to make the battery replaceable, Turnpike Authority officials hope that advances in technology will allow transponders to last longer. The transponders can be replaced at service centers in Auburn, East Boston, Natick, and Springfield.
In another change adopted Thursday, the Turnpike Authority board voted to extend the initial appeal policy for Fast Lane violations from 21 to 60 days. 